S.C. School Deputy is Fired

http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/27/us/south-carolina-who-is-ben-fields/

The school resource officer who was caught on camera slamming a South Carolina high school student at her desk has been fired. The video has gone viral, throughout social media. In the video it shows the Deputy lifting up the student and slamming her into the ground. Deputy Ben Fields said he had a reason why he did all that, he said the student was being disrespectful and not following his rules.

He shouldn’t have done all that to her, it looks awful in the video. I would’ve done something to stop him if I were a student in that classroom. How could that school allow for him to throw her to the ground like that? It’s so messed up.  This goes to show how easy it is for people to stand back and do nothing when they see injustice or to believe that authority is always right.

“The sheriff also said some of the responsibility for the incident lies with the student in question, who he said disrupted the class and refused to leave the classroom”

This whole situation started off because the girl became disruptive in her algebra class and was texting on her phone. Her teacher asked the student to leave.  When she refused, an administrator was called into the classroom. Is this a reasonable reason for her to be treated the way she was? No it is not reasonable.  She may have been in the wrong but authority can not respond to a wrong by inflicting more harm.

According to the court records Ben Fields has had several civil lawsuits; one for slamming a guy who was thought to be the reason of a noise complaint. The guy says Ben slammed him to the ground, cuffed him and started kicking him. The guy wasn’t the reason of the noise complaint and was taken to court where all the charges were dropped.  Supposedly the jury ruled that there was not enough evidence to convict Deputy Fields of any wrongdoing.

“Martin claimed that Fields “slammed him to the ground, cuffed him, began kicking him, and chemically maced him until his clothing was drenched and the contents of the can of mace was [sic] depleted,” according to court documents.”